but by hitching his wagon to paul ryan and endorsing ryan's budget plan, he attached himself to clearly articulated policy and a record that leaves the whole ticket exposed to attack which gives joe biden an opening to hit romney so hard -- to hit ryan so hard that mitt romney is going to feel it too. from the sound of it, the vice president seems to be getting his weight up. >> what i've been doing mostly is quite frankly, studying up on congressman ryan's positions. i just want to make sure that when i say these things that i don't have the congressman no, no, no, i don't have that position or that's not the governor's position. so it's mainly getting the factual predicates. >> when it comes to strategy thursday, in this and only this, he may want to steal a move from dick cheney. recall in 2004 when president george w. bush choked in the first of his three debates against john kerry. there was a strong performance against john edwards. cheney took one for the team playing the attack dog and allowing bush to keep his presidential hands clean. although i'd like to see a little more hea